Sarana has suddenly gained recognition in five seconds! Moreover, Yami has decided to entrust her with his secret! How will she react? The answer might just surprise you...
Chapter Four: Overnight Champion
Chaos erupted.
As Kaiba's Life Points zoomed to zero, suddenly, I was being mauled by a bunch of people. Who was I? they demanded, how had I become so good? How had I gotten my hands on one of Yugi's Egyptian God Cards?
Yugi suffered similarly. What did he see in the rookie? Why did he encourage her through the whole duel, and why did he trust her with an Egyptian God Card? That was a question that I wanted to hear the answer to.
Yugi, who was once again his real self, just shrugged his shoulders and said, "I just wanted to see if she could use it."
As if the crowd wasn't bad enough, we had the media coming for interviews. "We recorded the whole thing," the reporter told me enthusiastically, "You're holding a legendary Duel Disk, you know."
"I…I am?" I asked, glancing at it.
The reporter waved a hand impatiently. "That's Yugi Muto's Disk, and Yugi is the Duel Monsters world champion! What rock have you been living under?"
Wow…Really? "Uh, no rock," I answered, "I just started playing Duel Monsters today, and I had never heard about anyone in it before just now."
That brought a whole new round of questions: Where did I come from? Who taught me how to play? How was I able to become so good so quickly?
"She trusted in the heart of the cards," I heard Yugi answer for me, "That's why she won today." He tugged on my arm. "And we have to get going; Sarana's dad will be looking for her soon." And just like that, we were away from the mob and out in the fading sunlight.
"You rescued me," I said to him gratefully.
He gave me a half-smile. "I couldn't leave you alone to face those interviewers."
"Oh!" I slid his Duel Disk off my arm and gave it to him. "This is yours."
"Thanks." He put it on his own arm.
"Um, Yugi?" I asked tentatively; I just wanted to know. "Back there, the reporter called you a world champion. Was she right?"
He looked away from me at the setting sun. "Yes, I am the Duel Monsters champion and have been for three years…ever since I solved the Millennium Puzzle."
I gasped. "You mean…"
"Yeah." Yugi turned back to face me, and around his neck was the same pendant that was on the pharaoh on the stone tablet! "My grandfather read the writing on it, and it sad that whoever solved the Puzzle would become 'King of Games.' When I solved it…I became able to win at any game I play." He thought for a moment and said. "No, I lie. When I solved it, a spirit inhabited my body and he is the true King of Games." The eye decorating the Puzzle gleamed, and it was the other Yugi that stood before me!
"My name is Yami," he told me quietly, "Five thousand years ago I had another name, but time has blotted it out of existence."
My hand flew to my heart. "Then you must be …!"
"Yes, I am the pharaoh depicted on that stone tablet. The tomb you visited today was to be mine at my death."
"Then why…?"
"I have no memory of my former life," Yami said, looking away, "All I know about my past is that once upon a time I was the pharaoh, and that somehow I stopped the murderous Shadow Games before they destroyed the world, but I only know these things from another, similar tablet. The only thing I remember is waking up inside of Yugi's heart when he solved the Millennium Puzzle…" He looked back at me.
"The similarities between you and the Sarana from the stone tablet have opened a whole new array of questions about my past with little answers: never before has anyone mentioned her, so why does she appear when you come here? Why has no one mentioned that there was someone I loved," he said it almost bitterly, "five thousand years ago, and that she gave her life to protect me?" He was silent for a moment, ten continued, "I pushed Yugi to arrange a duel between you and Kaiba, and to lend you Slifer the Sky Dragon because the other Sarana was shown fighting one of my rivals while using Slifer, and I wondered if the two of you might share a connection through the past…"
"I have no idea," I admitted, "I didn't feel any different while dueling, but every time I thought of you and what you said about the heart of the cards, I wasn't so afraid, and…well, yeah." I blushed slightly.
"So many unanswered questions…" Yami repeated to himself.
"Hey, rookie," said a new voice, and I turned to see Kaiba towering over me. No, really, the top of my head would barely scrape his chin. "Rematch. Tonight. After Yugi's. Be there." He walked loftily past us.
"Well that was an eloquent exchange of words," I said pleasantly. "Now I'll just have to let Dad know that – oh, flibbertegibbesnapperwidget!"
"What is it?" Yami seemed confused.
"How am I gonna tell him that I beat a champion in my first duel?" I started to freak out and hyperventilate.
"Breathe, Sarana breathe!" Yugi (Yami switched back quickly) begged, fanning air at me with his hands.
"Right…breathe…" I took several breaths and calmed down. Yugi looked slightly amused.
"You act totally calm when I tell you that my body has the soul of a five-thousand year old pharaoh inside of it, but you think about your dad and what he might say about his overnight champion daughter and you freak out?"
"He'll tell everyone about it, and I'll never have a moment of peace ever again!" I moaned.
"I feel for you," Yugi sympathized, "When I beat Kaiba for the first time, there was quite a bit of hullabaloo and it took a while for everyone to get bored of me and the pharaoh."
"Yeah, speaking of which, is there anyone else who knows about…?"
"Well, there's you," Yugi counted on his fingers, "Then there's Joey, Tristan, Tea, my grandfather, Pegasus, and some other people you wouldn't know. Yup, only a few know of his existence." He leaned closer. "And I'd rather keep it that way, if you know what I mean."
I nodded. "Don't worry, I won't tell a soul," I promised, "Now to break the news to Dad…"
Twenty minutes later at Sarana's house…6pm
"Hey, Sarana!" Dad greeted enthusiastically when I walked into the apartment. "You have fun today?"
"Yeah, the stuff there was really cool, and Yugi Muto taught me how to play Duel Monsters afterwards," I answered truthfully.
"Did he now? Wasn't that nice of him?" I could hear Dad's forced surprise in his voice. "So, you hungry? I got pizza!"
My stomach rumbled. I laughed. "Does that answer your question?"
Fifteen minutes later, full of pizza and getting slightly sleepy, I was curling into Dad's side while we sat on the couch for the news when I remembered something.
"Oh, Dad?"
"Yes, sweetie."
"Yugi's having a rematch with Kaiba tonight, and he asked if I wanted to come and watch. Is that okay?" It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either; he didn't need to know about my upcoming rematch.
"Yugi and Kaiba? That's a duel any duelist would give their eyeteeth to watch! Sure you can go!"
"Thanks," I said, and snuggled closer into him when the screen blared BREAKING NEWS!
"This afternoon," the newscaster said, "Several hundred people witnessed an amazing event at the Cairo Museum: Seto Kaiba, the former Duel Monsters champion second only to the famous Yugi Muto, was defeated this afternoon by a young girl named Sarana Johnson, who arrived here in Egypt just yesterday. The duel was quite spectacular…" The TV showed some clips of our duel, including Kaiba's Ultimate Dragon, and my Guardian Angel Joan, "…but most interesting was that Sarana Summoned one of the ultra-powerful and ultra-rare Egyptian God Cards, namely Slifer the Sky Dragon." A clip of the red dragon entering the field was played. "Yugi was present at the duel and was actually the one to arrange it, and Sarana borrowed his Duel Disk for the occasion."
Dad stared at the me on the screen, and back at me with astonishment, while I stared on in horror, but the reporter wasn't done yet.
"I had a chance to talk to Sarana after the duel, and learned that until today she had never learned how to play the game Duel Monsters, which plenty of us highly doubt after what happened today, and that she had never even heard of Yugi Muto or Seto Kaiba. Speaking of which…" Kaiba entered the news room, "We have Mr. Seto Kaiba as our guest tonight. Tell us, Mr. Kaiba, why do you think you lost to a rookie this afternoon?"
"She was extremely lucky, obviously," Kaiba said dismissively, "Just drew the right thing at the right time and made halfway-decent moves. Having a regrettably good deck helps, too."
"Are you admitting that Sarana's deck was well-made?" the reporter asked interestedly.
"Yes, whoever created her deck knew what they were doing," Kaiba said coldly.
"Also, Mr. Kaiba, talk of this new arrival has installed rumors that she might just become the 'Queen of Games.' What do you think of this?"
"It's ridiculous, of course," Kaiba drawled, "Like I said, she was just extremely lucky today."
"Are you ever planning on dueling Sarana in the near future?" the reporter asked.
Kaiba snorted. "Of course! I already issued a challenge to her tonight after my duel with Yugi. She'll learn that no one, and I mean no one, makes a fool out of Seto Kaiba and gets away with it."
The reporter turned to face the viewers. "That was a very confident Seto Kaiba, coming to you live from Cairo News Station. We'll be back right after this commercial break."
Dad was…well…he was very surprised. "You did what?"
I fiddled with a lock of my black hair while I figured out how to best answer him. "Well, Kaiba came to Yugi after he taught me how to play, and Yugi made us duel, and I kinda…won…?" I looked sheepishly at him.
"You beat the second-best duelist in the world in your first duel?" A grin spread across Dad's face. "So that's why you wanted to go tonight, to have a rematch!" He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and hugged tightly. "Sarana, I'm so proud of you! You're going to be an excellent duelist, I just know it!"
"Uh, thanks, now let's hope that I'm not flattened tonight," I mumbled, "It sounds like Kaiba means business now…"
And since we all know and love Kaiba so much, he most certainly does mean business. How will Sarana fare in her rematch! Pretty obvious, but keep reading to find out! Please R&R!